There is Something Greater Than Bios Here: Braveheart’s William Wallace
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What strikes us in the character of William Wallace?
Wallace is a force to be reckoned with. He seems to be exaggerated, because his person seems to be larger than life. He has two fundamental qualities which we will bring to the fore. Most people have one or the other; but in the best instances they have both. First, there is something pertaining to strength: "Yes, I have heard! He kills men by the hundreds!" Second, something pertaining to eloquence or intelligence: "And fire breathing out of his mouth."
We come to the virtue of ‘megalopsychia’, which means greatness of soul. For Aristotle, this can be characterized as a noble bearing, calmly, through great misfortunes: the one who deems himself worthy of great things and is indeed worthy of them. He is concerned with the mean between honor and dishonor. He throws himself at great dangers while throwing away his life and is open in both hate and love (Ethica, 1100b32, 1107b22, and 1123a34-1125b3).
‘Megalopsychia’ is what theologians like Saint Thomas Aquinas have understood as magnanimity. Saint Thomas says: "by its very name denotes stretching forth of the mind to great things" (ST IIa-IIae.129.1.resp.). The magnanimous man is called magnanimous because he is "minded to do some great act" (ST IIa-IIae.129.1.resp.).
Wallace has two loves, corresponding to these two qualities of the magnanimous man. First, he has a wife to protect. This corresponds with strength. Second, he has a truth to uphold, which is freedom. This corresponds to intelligence.
Father Garrigou-Lagrange, a great Thomist of the 20th century, writes of these two qualities. First, he speaks of strength—or fortitude: "The heroes of barbarian races made the perfection of man consist above all in fortitude, courage, bravery…" (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Three Ages of the Interior Life, 145-6). Second, Father Garrigou-Lagrange speaks of wisdom: "[According to the Greek Philosophers], man is distinguished from lower beings by his intellect, and therefore the perfection of man as such is chiefly the perfection of his intellect" (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Three Ages of the Interior Life, 147).
At the death of his wife, something broke inside of Wallace. It was as if when his wife died, he died alongside her. Hence, he became likened to an ethereal prowler, caring neither for life nor death but only freedom at any cost.
Ratzinger, when talking of Plato, writes: "It is both a political martyrdom and a testimony to the greater degree of reality to be found in justice as opposed to simply a biological existence…this philosophy finds its center in the idea of justice…man, to survive biologically, must be more than bios" (Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, 78-9). And we see that Wallace does this. But yet there is something more.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: "Philosophical and theological systems are often true in what they affirm and false in what they deny. Why is this? Because reality, as God Made it, is far richer than all our limited and narrow conceptions" (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Three Ages of the Interior Life, 152). In Shakespeare's Hamlet, we find the phrase: "There are no things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in our philosophy" (Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 5).
The character of William Wallace is a sophisticated and complicated character, who has not yet fully integrated the highest perfection which goes beyond the perfections of heroic fortitude and heroic wisdom: heroic charity. It is an instance of unfettered masculinity. As well as fortitude and wisdom, heroic charity is the highest perfection of man and is what makes him truly magnanimous.
Lectures on Church Architecture
Saint Bernadette, Linville NC
(Material will most likely be used in a podcast in the future)
The great writer and essayist G. K. Chesterton was once writing a short fictional detective story involving a chase of the mischievous criminal Flambaeu being chased by the French detective Valentin. During one point of the story, G. K. Chesterton reflected on chase: "He had come to the end of his chase; yet somehow he had missed the middle of it" (1). When admiring pictures and even visiting the great cathedrals of Italy, France, and Germany, for example, we undoubtedly see the finished product. There is something hidden in that magnanimous foundation, those high walls, and the gorgeous decoration that we can't really seem to put our finger on. And, using the quote from Chesterton, we can say: "He had come to the end of his journey in the great cathedral, yet somehow he had missed the middle of it." And the "middle of it" is what we will be discussing tonight.
Most of the material I will be using tonight comes from Jean Hani's The Symbolism of the Christian Temple and other works related to this book.
Sacred Art seems no longer to exist anymore in modern Catholic Churches. Jean Hani muses that "We can perhaps speak of a religious but certainly not a sacred art; indeed, between these two notions lies a radical difference than a nuance" (2). Religious art carries tones of sentimentalism, moralism, and 'aestheticism': an individualistic and 'literary' twist on sacred art (3). On the other side, sacred art is not "sentimental or psychological, but of an ontological and cosmological nature" (4). Now, the dignity of art is the sensible plane of the ideal Beauty, which is an divine attribute of God, a "reflection of the Divine Beatitude" (5). The ultimate end of art is to "reveal the image of the divine Nature imprinted but hidden in creation, by producing visible objects capable of being symbols of the invisible God" (6). The Second Council of Nicea states: "The indefinable Word of the Father is Himself defined in becoming flesh….Reinstating the soiled image in its original form, He penetrates it with divine Beauty. Confessing this, we reproduce it in works and actions" (7). Therefore, an artist cannot be guided by his own inspirations, since his work is not conveying his personality, but rather looking for the perfect form of the sacred prototypes in the mind of God (8).
One last point: Jean Hani outlines two separate orders of symbols that we will be working with tonight: theological and cosmological (9). Theological symbols are based upon the very nature of their objects (10). What does this mean? This phrase is talking about, for example, church of stone is the heavenly Jerusalem, or the faithful soul: these symbols are theological, almost as if it were solely dealing with those things given by Revelation (11). On the other hand, cosmological symbols are a unity existing that unites the diverse pats of the universe, using analogies and correspondences, almost as if they were found by natural reason. In cosmological symbolism, there are two hierarchical levels. First, there is the symbolism of the part that is being examined with the whole of the universe. Second, there is the symbolism of the universe and its parts with respect to the divine world (12).
The Church in General
The purpose of the Church is not simply to "assemble the faithful', as is only done in the heretical churches of the protestants, but rather to manifest an ambiance through the flux of sensations, feelings, and ideas (13). Put quite simply, this is an attempt to better manifest grace (14). Grace is participation in the Divine Life of God. The church's goal, then, is to lead one toward "communion with the Divine" (15).
How can such a church be constructed so well as to lead one toward communion with the Divine? What rules would we even use, they have to go beyond our reason, since it is dealing with heavenly realities. It is almost as if God Himself would have to give us these guidelines. Which, in fact, he does. We see in the Old Testament that not only one but multiple sanctuaries were built from directions given by God. Moses gave detailed prescriptions of what God said (16). God prefaced it with: "And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it" (Ex. 25:8-9). David, Solomon, and Ezekiel in turn were given descriptions by God of how they should design their temples (1 Chron. 28:11, 19; Wisd. 9:8; and Ezek. 43:10-11).
Some will argue that the only true temple, however, for the Christian people, is the spiritual temple made up of the community of the faithful (17). But in the consecration ritual of church, there is an unceasing parallel given between the Christian church and that of Solomon (18). Further, the medieval term for 'House of God', which people often take for the is the exact word for the egyptian temple (hat-neter or pet-neter) (19).
The Foundation of the Church
Every sacred edifice is made of cosmological symbolism–going back to that distinction we made between theological symbolism and cosmological symbolism (20). The church is an image of the world viewed as made by the hand of God (21). The church is not simply a realistic image, but even a structural image of the world: this means that it reproduces the innermost and mathematical structure of the universe (22). To this end, we look at the foundation of the building.
All sacred architecture comes back to this idea: "quadrature of the circle", or the transformation of the circle into a square (23). On a cosmological level, the circle is the form of heaven, more specifically the activity of heaven, the instrument of Divine Activity (24). The circle symbolizes, on a metaphysical level, the "unity of God, His infinity, and his perfection” (25). Life on earth is encased in the figure of the square (26). Now the way in which is the foundation was made of a church desribed by Vitruvius and pracitced until the end of the medieval ages was as follows.
"The foundations of the building wre oriented that to a gnomon enabling one to mark the axes (cardo, north-south, and decumanus, east-west)" (27).
Figure 1.a
"At the center of the chosen site a pole was erected around which a large circle was traced; then the following are noted: the shadow of cast upon the circle, and the maximum difference between the morning and evening shadows indicating the east-west axis."
"Finally, two circles centered on the cardinal points of the first indicate by their intersection the angles of the square."
Furthermore, the garden of Eden, being a direct reflection of Heaven, was circular. It was divided by the cross of four rivers, the center being marked by the Tree of Life (28).
Transitioning Into Three Dimensions
While passing into the three-dimensional structure of the church, we see the same results reflected in the cube and the dome. The cube is the nave of the church, while the dome is placed on top of it (29). Just as the physical sky is placed above the earth, so too is the dome or vault placed above the cube symbolizing the earth (30). An effect of this is that the majority of vaults were painted blue and covered with stars (31). As man passes from the cube to the sphere, he passes from earthly realities to heavenly realities, with ascending vertically symbolizing the direction of heaven.
(1) Chesterton, The Complete Father Brown Stories, 27
(2) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 1
(3) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 1
(4) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 1
(5) F. Schuon, found in Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 2
(6) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 2
(7) Second Council of Nicea
(8) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 3
(9) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 9
(10) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 9
(11) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 9
(12) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 10
(13) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 3
(14) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 3
(15) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 3
(16) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 13
(17) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 15
(18) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 15
(19) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 15, footnote 3
(20) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 18
(21) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 18
(22) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 18, footnote 1
(23) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 19
(24) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 20
(25) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 20
(26) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 20
(27) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 19
(28) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 21
(29) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 22
(30) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 22
(31) Hani, The Symbolism of the Christian Temple, 22
Craftsmen in the MoDern World
What even are craftsmen? We have this word but don’t fully understand what it means. They seem to be those who deal with the arts. But these arts are a segway between nature (not the inner primary principle of motion and rest, buy the created material universe) and ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies). They primarily deal with tangible or material things found in nature and move further away from technological achievements, that is, making a product from technological systems. We know that they exist because of the material result that comes from it. It is distinct from electronic communicative achievements because, in a sense, these electronics appear to disobey a principal law of philosophy—to have the world at your fingertips with little dimension seems intuitively “off”.
J.R.R. Tolkien speaks of the summit, in some way, of the craftsmen. While speaking of his idea which he dubs ‘sub-creation’, he says: “What really happens, is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator’. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’".” (Carpenter, 194). This seems to be the model for the craftsman: the pivotal sub-creator is he that can make a product that one’s mind can enter. Tolkien contirues: “…it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from the outside” (195).
There seem to be different levels or degrees of craftsmen, corresponding to the weight of their craft. First, stonemen and metal workers who work with stone and metal. Second, there are woodworkers: those who work with wood and plants. Third, there are those craftsmen who work with animals. This includes animal keeping. Fourth, there are those who work with the intellect—those who work with books and stories. But this is a way of looking at things from a material standpoint. It seems that we should rather categorize things according to their object. What we mean is that we should not look at things from simply a material point of view, but by their form, archetype, or object which they produce. This is the formal cause in philosophy, which is closely linked to the final cause. So, rather than categorizing by the material cause, we should categorize by the formal cause. The question then asked is what does this material produce in accordance with the transcendentals. The first transcendental that we will speak of is beauty. Beauty has three parts: proportionality, clarity, and integrity. A second is goodness. Goodness is what all men desire. The third is truth. Truth is the conformity of the mind to reality. Good craftsmanship ought to display a more or less transcendent object. The highest is God, and the lowest is inanimate reality. That is why it is strange to find a sculpture of a rock.
Opening Pandora’s Box
It all begins with an idea.
This blog post is an introduction to something that is larger than me, a beast that I am trying to wrangle and figure out what exactly it is. My attempt, ultimately, is to transcend mere superficial words and get to the heart of things. These things are what people don’t wish to remember, or even worse, not even realize that they are there. But they are, these deeper things, pervading the meaning of our lives. Sure, go ahead, and live a sedentary life of not asking! Go right ahead. Live your whole life on the brim instead of diving deeper. And then you will die. And no one will think anymore of you because you never deeply thought about God, yourself, and God’s and your relation to the world around you. I am opening pandora’s box. I am about to open some pretty scary things to some people. But they are, nevertheless, true. And the one who really seeks the truth will find things perhaps stinging but nonetheless true. This blog is only for those who can handle it. Are you ready?